Guilty of assault, mother who bit daughter, 4, to teach her lesson
A SINGLE mother was convicted of assault after biting her daughter to teach her not to do the same to her little brother.
Jessica Price, 24, sank her teeth into her four-year- old’s thigh and caused extensive bruising.
The misguided lesson came after her daughter had tried to bite her two-year-old half-brother during a game.
When Price realised she had seriously hurt her daughter, she tried to cover her tracks by asking the youngster to lie to relatives and say her brother had attacked her instead. But police were called in after the girl told her father: ‘Mummy really bit me.’
Officers discovered Price had sent WhatsApp messages to friends, in which she admitted hurting her daughter. The full-time mother later confessed: ‘I was just trying to teach her that biting is bad.’
It is quite common for toddlers to bite – about a quarter of two and three-year-olds will bite others at this age.
Online parenting forums are full of comments from those who advocate gently bit- ing their offspring to show them it hurts and it is wrong, but most experts agree that biting back sends the wrong message to children.
Price, who has since attended parenting classes, wept as she admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester.
Handing down a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years yesterday, Judge John Potter said: ‘ You are supposed to protect her.
‘I accept this wasn’t a sustained attack but two acts within a short space of time. It was a short tempered, wholly inexcusable thing to do.’
The court heard Price had a brief relationship with the fatherCasey, 27, of and the their girl, daughterDaniel lived with him full-time following their split in 2013. Price, from Rochdale, had custody of the child three days a week. But Nicola Wells, prosecuting, said her parenting abilities had previously been called into question and social services and the family courts were involved in the child’s care.
The court heard Mr Casey discovered two large bruises on his daughter’s upper thigh last September after she vis- ited her mother. He asked her what had happened, to which the child replied: ‘Mummy really bit me. Mummy told me to say that my brother did it but her nose will grow because she is telling lies.’ Mr Casey phoned Price who denied biting the child and blamed her son. However, Price’s mother, Susan Jones, later told officers that Price had bitten the child once on the leg to ‘show her it was wrong’ after she bit her younger brother. Miss Wells added: ‘After she [Price] did it... she was crying and did show signs of remorse. She admitted to the social worker what she had done but could not look her in the eye.’
‘She is telling lies’